Consumers are becoming accustomed to near ubiquitous access to Internet-based and web-based services and applications. In the past, data intensive applications, such as steaming video, on-demand video, video conferencing, etc., were limited to devices, such as personal computers, set-top boxes, stand-alone video conferencing systems, etc., having dedicated, high-speed (e.g., broadband) data connections provided by an Internet service provider (ISP). Today, consumers have access to a plethora of electronic devices, including smartphones, tablet computers, personal data devices, personal digital assistants, etc., that support Internet connectivity, and may have sufficient processing power to support at least some media-rich applications. However, while a consumer may own or have access to a number of such electronic devices, the data bandwidth capabilities of each individual device may be limited such that none of the consumer's devices, on its own, can support the data transfer speeds associated with a data intensive application the consumer wishes to access.
Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like elements, parts, etc.